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Hockey

Hawks trying best not to give streaky Wild any momentum

Minnesota Wild forwards Jason Pominville and Zach Parise look for the rebound from Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford during the third period in Game 3 of the second round of the 2015 NHL playoffs at Xcel Energy Center on May 5, 2015. (Marilyn Indahl/USA TODAY Sports)

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The Minnesota Wild are the team that’s one game away from elimination, but the Chicago Blackhawks are the nervous ones.

They know better than anyone how close these games have been, and how quickly the Wild can get on a run, so they have no interest in seeing this series last any longer than Game 4 tonight.

“They had an amazing run when they made the trade for the goalie there, went on an amazing run to get to the playoffs,” said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, who has been stressing the importance and completing the sweep tonight at the Xcel Energy Center.

“We know what they’re capable of doing. Every game has been tight, close. We expect that same tonight and we want to make sure we even raise our level of play.

“We have to be desperate, leave it out there tonight, get off to a strong start and play like it’s a game 7.”

Devan Dubnyk said the Wild expected to win this series, not go out in a four-game whimper, but since they can’t undo the first three games, he says all that’s left is to try and do something with the fourth.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to be in this situation, including myself,” said the Wild goaltender. “We knew it was going to be a tough series but we didn’t think we would be down 3-0.

“But we’re too good of a team and we’ve got too much pride in here to (get swept). We’re going in tonight to win this game to give ourselves a chance to come back in the series and we’re not just trying to avoid losing in four, we’re still trying to win the series. That starts with tonight.”

Head coach Mike Yeo knows the odds are somewhere between long and impossible, but since they have to play Game 4 anyway, he says they might as well win it.

“We’ve been in similar situations before,” he said. “Unfortunately sometimes bad things happen, but how you react to them is far more effective than trying to figure out why. We have to react to it the right way, get ready for the next game and control what’s in our control right now.

“We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves and we’re not looking behind us, we’re not saying What if. We’re getting ready for tonight.”

NO STEWART

The Wild will be without Chris Stewart again.

The big winger injured his arm our shoulder in Game 2 and still isn’t ready, although he did try things out at the morning skate Thursday.

“I wasn’t real hopeful he’d be able to play tonight anyway,” said Yeo. “It’s obviously not as serious as it could be since he’s still considering it. It’s getting closer but definitely not in tonight.”